Child soldiers go back to school in Central African Republic

A child soldier is released by anti-Balaka militia at ceremony in Batanfago earlier this year Picture: UNICEF/Fouchard

When two of Josephine国产视频檚 uncles were murdered by聽armed cattle rustlers on Central African Republic国产视频榮 southern聽border just before her 12th birthday, all she could think of聽was taking revenge.

The schoolgirl was an easy target for recruitment by mostly聽Christian militia groups battling fighters of the Muslim Peul聽tribe in the flatlands of the eastern Ouaka region.聽

国产视频淭he Peuls had killed my uncles and I was ready to commit聽reprisals,国产视频� said Josephine, now 14, sitting in a bright yellow聽dress under the shade of a mango tree in her school playground.

国产视频淥ur job as children was to decapitate the bodies of dead聽enemy soldiers,国产视频� she said, her face blank and betraying no聽emotion.

Children have been enslaved and used as fighters and human聽shields by rival militias who have recruited up to 10,000 under-18s since largely Muslim Seleka rebels briefly seized power in聽2013, triggering waves of violence and reprisal killings,聽according to the United Nations children国产视频檚 agency UNICEF.

It was during a gunbattle across the lawless, mineral-rich聽floodplain in 2013 that Josephine was recruited by the so-called聽anti-balaka, a largely Christian militia that tried to inflate聽its ranks with children who could be easily mobilised against聽the Peuls.

Her brigade of 111 soldiers included 42 children at the聽height of the conflict in 2013, during which the opposing聽militias used bloodthirsty tactics, ransacking villages and聽stealing livestock, said Josephine, twiddling a biro in her聽fingers.

国产视频淭he Peuls had no hesitation in killing my uncle and his聽brother so for me it was the same. I got it out of my system,国产视频澛燡osephine said. Her name has been changed for her safety.

The red-soil scrubland of Ouaka is some 200km from the聽capital Bangui, where Pope Francis arrived a few days ago to help聽heal Christian-Muslim divisions.

His visit came with the city still tense from a fresh bout聽of fighting in September. In Ouaka, the anti-balaka are often聽involved in deadly skirmishes with ethnic Peul fighters of the聽Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC), a Muslim splinter group聽of the Seleka coalition, which controls CAR国产视频檚 northeast.

Some of the 163 children released during a ceremony in Batangafo in August Picture: UNICEF/Fouchard

Nearly three years of inter-religious conflict in Central聽African Republic have been characterised by shocking brutality聽and abuses on both sides.

A number of ex-child combatants have told UNICEF they were forced to disembowel deceased pregnant women and to kill their聽own parents as a form of initiation into the armed group.

But the proportion of under-18s in rebel ranks has聽fallen sharply, UNICEF said, spurred by the signing of an聽internationally-sponsored pact in Bangui, in May, under which聽the armed factions agreed to demobilise all child soldiers as聽part of CAR国产视频檚 transition towards elections now set for December 27.

More than 5000 children have been released from armed聽groups since the beginning of 2014, the agency said.

Josephine, who stayed with the anti-balaka for two years,聽was one of 1300 children 国产视频� 213 of them girls 国产视频� to be released as聽part of a UNICEF scheme this year which presented her with a聽choice 国产视频� go back to school or to start a business.

国产视频淚 turned my back on the armed groups and decided school was聽the way forward,国产视频� said Josephine, suddenly distracted by the聽uproar of songful children bursting out of classrooms in the聽heat of the early afternoon.

聽In Ouaka国产视频檚 main town, Bambari, where a river divides Muslim and Christian communities, former child combatants have set up businesses with sponsorship through a local NGO called Nda.

国产视频淚 used to carry weapons,国产视频� said shaven-headed Mahmoud, 16, an ex-UPC member whose real name has been changed.

He spent two years with the UPC, whose leaders also forced him to carry out menial tasks such as cooking and cleaning equipment.

国产视频淚 used to think being a soldier was the way forward but now I want to make clothes for money,国产视频� said Mahmoud, his eyes lighting up as he drew green cotton from an a rainbow of spools in a tiny mud-walled tailor国产视频檚 shop in the town国产视频檚 main market.

A $300 grant from UNICEF, paid in installments, gave him the capital to buy textiles and a sewing machine, which he uses to stitch clothes, making him one of the more successful ex-fighters to enter the rehabilitation programme.

The handover was facilitated by UNICEF and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA)

Others can be reluctant to leave the armed groups, fearing they may be stigmatised in their home community after playing a role in the conflict, said Benoit Daoundo, UNICEF国产视频檚 head of child protection programme in Bambari.

He said he was concerned that fresh tensions in CAR, which saw an upsurge in fighting two months ago, had created fertile conditions for children to rejoin the rebels.

The violence caused the postponement of internationally-backed elections to the end of the year, but both the UPC and the anti-balaka have said they are adhering to the UN-backed process to release children from their ranks.

国产视频淲e have already freed all the children associated with our group. They are no longer part of the UPC,国产视频� Ali Daras, the UPC国产视频檚 leader, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in Bambari, close to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

Daras, dressed in a white shirt, and his young uniformed fighters, many of them ethnic Peuls, control Bambari, a vital gateway to barely exploited diamond and gold mines that analysts say could one day transform CAR into an export powerhouse.

Despite assurances from Daras and anti-balaka commanders that those remaining in their ranks are all over 18, the U.N. mission, MINUSCA, whose 10,800 uniformed peacekeepers patrol towns and cities across the country, is unconvinced.

国产视频淭he armed groups have not let go of all their children, despite some notable successes,国产视频� said Diane Corner, Deputy Special Representative to the U.N. Secretary General in Bangui.

Despite progress, there are still some children beyond reach because of the intensity of ongoing fighting and the reluctance of the armed groups to adhere to MINUSCA国产视频檚 disarmament programme, UN officials say.

There are still several hundred children connected to armed groups in Lobaye, a prefecture west of Bangui, as well as close to the towns of Bossangoa, Batangafo and in Markounda region, in the north, said Speciose Hakizimana, UNICEF deputy country representative.

国产视频淲e have little information on the situation in the east,国产视频� she added.

UNICEF said the crisis in Central African Republic was one of the most under-funded of those it was responding to in the world, and that it had only received half of its required 2015 budget of $71 million.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of聽Thomson Reuters, covers humanitarian news, women国产视频檚 rights,聽corruption and climate change.